[depressed.fml]

When I went for my first session with the psychologist, I was diagnosed with PTSD (as well as several other things), but I'm not totally clear on what PTSD is. I know that is is caused when something traumatic happens in your life that you are not emotionally able to cope with. But I am confused. I have had several small traumatic experiences happen to me, but never anything extremely severe like Warfare for example. Only episodes of daily emotional abuse (which believe me is also extremely hard to deal with, but I can't compare it to participation in war as I haven't experienced that before). Can this still lead you to develop PTSD?

[Open Eyes]

Yes, any kind of tramatic situation can lead to PTSD. I hope your in therapy and can talk more with a therapist that can help you with this.

There are some threads in this forum that talk about what PTSD is. You can also look it up and read about it. PTSD can come from all kinds of experiences of abuse as well.

Welcome to PC depressed.fml.

Take some time to read other threads, it will help you get to know different member that come to this forum and struggle with PTSD as well.

Open Eyes

Hi and welcome to PC (((((((((depressed fml))))))))!!!

You are correct in questioning this...your doc should know best!!!

However...Not all "traumatic" events in life lead to the DISORDER of PTSD...many can, and do suffer from "Post Traumatic Stress"; this too is very painful, however it is easier to overcome, but many mistake all traumas in their lives as being a permanent "Disorder". (I wish it were so for me--I have cPTSD from which I have suffered all of my life.--it'd be so much more palpable to try the road from one or two traumatic events in my life!!!)

My life has been a veritable minefield of traumatic events, domestic violence, rape, loss of my home, physical and emotional abuse from age two...to being a first responder at 9/11, to generational abuse within my family--to name only a very few! eek!...eh. I gots the disorder

Here is a link to my favorite place, which delineates betwixt PTS and PTSD and CPTSD...
It also gives you all sorts of info...The Sidran Institute was talking about PTSD before it became a diagnosis, hope it helps...wish you all the best! Please pm me should you feel the need?? ~~~Pax~~theodora

http://healthfinder.gov/orgs/HR3710.htm

this is a good resource...full of valid information..not just stuff people have read & interpreted on their own & quote back to you as truth. htere is a science to it...

everyone has experienced some form of trauma...be it their pet dying, a car accident, sexual abuse, combat, terror related incidents etc. how each person reacts & handles it is different.

some people can drive by an accident on a road, look & say "terrible" & move on. it does not bother them for more than a few moments. for others it becomes a long lasting image.

i think that (& this is just MY OPINION) that the actual cases of ptsd are far smaller that documented. i feel that right now...people see a dr with complaints of feeling sad, depressed, trouble sleeping etc especially since a sad event & boom right away it goes to ptsd...instead of maybe just plain old grief or depression. not to say that ptsd does not exist..it does...like i said i just feel that this is the new & exciting code to be used by doc's to get more insurance time & $$.

i get ptsd...like i said i am not saying you don't have it or that it is not real...been there done that & have many t shirts...have it from severe childhood sexual & physical abuse, from many many incidents in law enforcement...seen too much..pre 9/11 war on terror was actually much scarier than the one after...

anyway...good luck..use the link above for a good start...it's based on real info..not something rehashed...& when in doubt ash your dr

[Open Eyes]

depressed.fml

You have some very healthy outlets, make sure you keep that up. The form of PTSD that may be a part of your diagnosis may not be as severe as what some people struggle with. One of the therapies that has proven to be very helpful is Reparenting therapy that helps you find some difficult areas in your childhood and helps you address these troubling areas differently where you actually LEARN how to resolve.

None of us are therapists and theodora is correct there is Post tramatic stress and then there is the disorder, I have been diagnosed with the disorder myself. Keep talking with your therapist and if you have questions, don't be afraid to ask these questions.

Here is another link that I found helpful, www.giftfromwithin.org just be careful that you don't determine yourself to have all these issues, keep that direction and advice in check with your therapist.

(((((Hugs))))
Open Eyes

[Pikku Myy]

PSTD is very real and does need to be addressed... Hugs for you on your first steps!!!

[Penny T. StDuhnam]

Until you seriously address it, it's like a prison.

[Open Eyes]

depressed.fml,

One thing that I feel is important about PTSD that I would like you to know is that, yes it can be like a prison and there are lots of ways to describe it that can present a description of that kind of sentiment.

Penny does have a good point that I hope you take into REAL consideration and not just focus on the word prison. And that is seriously addressing it which means making it a point to work with a therapist, and that will have to be ongoing for a while.

When I was first trying to understand PTSD, I did read about it and looked at the symptoms. And yes, I do have the symptoms. However the one thing that I DID struggle with is what it REALLY meant.

One of the symptoms that is talked about is "catastrophizing". And I didn't really understand what that really meant for quite a while. How I took it was that somehow I had made too much of some very bad, troubling, experiences than I should have. And I knew these experiences were BAD ones and they were WRONG. And there WAS a message by people around me of "Well, you just gotta get over it". And as much as I tried, I simply could not overcome certain things, and I even got angry and felt that other people were simply invalidating me for something I knew was REAL, WRONG and EXTREMELY EFFECTING ME.

Well, first and foremost you have to understand that PTSD is presented by a person experiencing High levels of STRESS from either one big trama or several ongoing tramas. In a way each person is going to be a little different depending on what they experienced that eventually produced either Post Tramatic Stress, or the disorder that is more difficult to treat and understand. However once it is understood better, with therapy and time it is something that one can learn to control better.

The main component in PTSD is "anxiety" and how the "anxiety" can often become more difficult for the person who is experiencing PTSD to overcome. When we struggle with anxiety what that means is that our body can fill with a chemical that is produced by addressing a stressful situation, cortin. We all have this chemical reaction when we experience a situation that may equate to personal danger. And what this does is present us with a heightened sense of awareness that can be converted into energy to run or get away from that danger. It is useful and we all have it, however in a person with PTSD, there can develope a heightened awareness of things that can be reminders of a bad experience that can bring out too much cortisol that becomes difficult to control and can lead to other symptoms of fatigue and confusion that are also a part of PTSD.

So lets go back to that word that is used, catastrophizing, that word that confused me. What it really means is that what people who have PTSD can do unknowingly is because they can over react to a situation that reminds them of a bad memory or a time where they were very stressed, they can respond to it with more anxiety that the average person. That anxiety that presents itself, if not recognized and consciously worked through, can itself become a concern and instead, a person suffering with PTSD can feed into the anxiety making it feel more like a catastrophy than a simple reminder of a bad event.

Most people know about PTSD as it is connected with veterans of war that come home after experiencing some pretty bad things that they experience during war and once they are home cannot seem to adjust to being in an atmosphere where there is no battle. These men/women begin to decompress but they can't seem to shake that sense of the high alert they experienced in battle situations. They are very troubled by many different things, loud noises and anything that can remind them of that hyperactive state they were involved in. They struggle because they can't seem to turn it off somehow and can react to the visual things that they experienced while in that hyperstate of mind. It is a real problem for them that the average person doesn't really understand.

Well, the same type of condition can come from someone who experiences other dangerous or upsetting experiences and it CAN present a similar struggle with over reacting to certain reminders that can bring back that upsetting event, or events.

Each person, as I said is different and the one thing that therapist works on with someone who struggles is to identify these events and work with the patient to help them consciously overcome these troubling situations. As they work on that the patient slowly learns how to identify the events and find ways to consciously develope a sense of yes, that bad thing happened and this and that reminder doesn't mean it is happening now.

The best way to work on PTSD and recovering is to recognize that the uncomfortable anxiety attacks that come forward are QUESTIONS. And by consciously considering these troubling bouts with uncomfortable anxiety are quetions going back to an original struggle, that is where a patient can really begin to overcome. And because it can be different for different patients, that is why it is very important to work with a therapist that can help the patient figure out how to identify and overcome the events themselves.

If I give myself as an example here. So far I have come to SLOWLY recognize that when I do struggle much of the original trama came from when I was very young, times were I was very fightened and did not know what to do. I experienced this a lot and even though I thought I had overcome my past, I truely didn't. I did manage to contain these struggles with anxiety by developing my own grounding methods, that I wasn't really consciously aware of. But in my case, after suffering from a big event where I suffered a big loss, that event presented enough stress that presented me with the inability to control the anxiety that I had somehow managed to control in my past.

Working with a therapist is crucial, a person struggling with PTSD truely cannot resolve this on their own. It is important to learn that the "catastophizing" is something that takes place where a troubling trigger can cause a person to experience too much anxiety and the anxiety itself can be scarey and can lead to someone feeding into it making is much worse than it is. And a patient has to work on identifying this and slowly learning how to CONSCIOUSLY overcome it.

In my own therapy I have slowly been working on situations from my childhood that presented me with a lot of stress. It can be verbal abuse, sexual abuse, or any situation where a child felt very troubled and did not truely find the correct way to resolve the bad experience. The goal in therapy is not about reliving that bad experince, it more about understanding what it meant and learning how to finally overcome it. And it is very important that a therapist help the patient learn to overcome a strong sense of guilt that in that situation a child really didn't have a real ability to find the right resolve to that certain situation.

Yes, we can all talk about PTSD as some kind of prison, however I do not want to tell any new comer or other person who is confused about PTSD to CATASTROPHIZE it because THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS.

THERAPY IS A MUST in dealing with PTSD. And in my time here at PC, I have also listened to some helpful suggestions from others that have slowly gained more control OVER their PTSD.

I have listened to stumpy who talks about exercise and the right diet and how important that has been to her. And she does talk about working on NOT feeding into the anxiety and that it CAN be overcome.

I have learned from theodora that she has also learned that making efforts to add humor in her life has been helpful to her. So I remember that as well.

I have considered all the theraputic input that others here have found helpful. So it is important to know that you not alone and there are some very helpful ways to help yourself understand it and overcome it better.

Yes, it is a difficult disorder to overcome, I am still struggling however I am gaining little by little. I have more things in my past that I realized and I am paying attention to the things/situations that trigger me. I write them down, talk about them with my therapist and it has been very helpful for me. It does take time and patience for most people to learn how to overcome and do their best to not "catastrophize" or feed into this disorder unknowingly. There are different medications that psychiatrist use to help someone suffering from PTSD that can help them overcome the troubling symptoms.

One to the very helpful things I have found is being able to come to PC for support and also learning I am not alone, others understand, experience the same struggle. I needed to know that because outside PC most people do not understand this disorder and can present very unsupportive reactions. I do recommend that is someone is struggling and are living around family members or a spouce, these close people should also meet with the therapist so they can SUPPORT the person who struggles and HELP them by being understanding and patient.

Open Eyes

[I]Again, sources for the OP:

http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/treatment-ptsd.asp

http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/recovering-disasters.aspx

[cookie00]

Theodora, thanks for those helpful websites. As a social work students I am really getting a lot of insight on PTSD.

Welcome to PC (((((((((cookie00)))))))))!--glad you got something from them...

feel free to pm me anytime! hugs~~~~~~~~~~~~~theo